


Finally Feels Just Like Home

by cassiopeiasara



Series: Infinite Playlist of Ships [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 21:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6094475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopeiasara/pseuds/cassiopeiasara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma's birthday brings a day full of celebration, thoughtful gifts and a feeling of home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finally Feels Just Like Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hylen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hylen/gifts).



> A/N: From a tumblr prompt requesting a story inspired by Adele's "Sweetest Devotion" Timeline context: I’m going to continue to live in denial of season 5 but let’s keep Emma’s house while we ditch the existence of the current love interests and fast forward about 3 years. Shoutout to steellily for her beta skillsl 
> 
> Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me and if they did, it would be an entirely different show. I seek no profit.

Emma clipped her gun to its holster and picked up her badge from the counter. When she reached her door, she heard a slight creaking from her front porch. She furrowed her brow in confusion but smiled when she saw two figures swinging in her newly installed swing. 

One of them hopped up with a gift and a kiss to her cheek. “Hey mom.”

“Hey kid, what’s this for?”

He quirked an eyebrow at her in an expression she’d come to associate more with the other person perched in the swing. “Duh, it’s your birthday.”

“As is tradition, we’ve come bearing gifts and an offer of breakfast at Granny’s.” Regina held up a thermos of coffee and smiled gently at Emma. 

Emma took the thermos. “Thanks, I wasn’t expecting…”

Regina winked as she rose, “Don’t thank us yet, your parents and siblings will be joining us as well.”

Emma rolled her eyes and Henry pointed to her gift. “It’s from both of us.”

Emma tilted her head toward Regina. “Really?”

Regina nodded and pointed to her thermos. “That too.”

Emma took a moment to look closer at her thermos. She could smell Regina’s brand of coffee in it and almost commented that it was gift enough  before she noticed the design. Her name was printed on the side with stars circling it. She smiled at the gesture as Henry reached to squeeze the hand holding her other present. “Open it!”

Emma let out a small laugh. “O.K., calm down.” She handed him her thermos as she tore the gift wrapping from the box. It was a small book with the words ‘Our Family’ in gold letters on the front. As Emma thumbed through it, she recognized Henry’s handwriting relaying a small account of every picture. 

The pictures chosen were only from the last few years and Emma thought for a moment of the ones she knew Henry used to find them a few years ago. On the last page lay two of her favorites. One with Henry beaming and Regina smiling at her as she laughed in her place behind their son and one of the three of them with Snow, David, little Neal and Ava. 

Emma turned to them both. “Thank you.” She ruffled Henry’s hair and sniffled as she smiled at Regina. 

Regina nodded. “All right, let’s go before your mother has a fit about us monopolizing you this morning.”

Henry jumped down the stairs in front of them and Regina moved to squeeze Emma’s shoulder. “Happy Birthday.”

Emma nodded in lieu of answering verbally. She wondered if there would ever come a time where the presence of other people she loved so much on her birthday didn’t cause her to tear up.

* * *

There was a donut cake and streamers awaiting them when they entered Granny’s. Emma hugged her younger siblings and kissed her parents. She smiled at the decorations. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

“Nonsense, it’s your birthday,” stated Snow. 

Emma rolled her eyes as she sat down and little Ava placed a pink crown on her head. Emma quirked an eyebrow at her. “What’s this?”

“You’re the birthday princess.”

She heard chuckling in front of her and turned to see the source. Regina brought her hand up to her mouth and Henry’s shoulders were shaking. She rolled her eyes at the both of them. “You just wait.”

Regina calmed first and raised her eyebrows in question. 

Emma pointed at her. “Don’t think I won’t make you wear one on your birthday Mayor Mills.”

Regina shrugged. “I have no issue with crowns dear.”

Ruby arrived with their orders and Emma’s planned retort was interrupted by hunger. She listened to her little sister prattle on about preschool and rolled her eyes at her mother’s continued insistence that since she wasn’t getting younger she really ought to settle down. 

“I have Henry and Regina, what more could I want?”

The table stilled at her declaration and Regina turned to her with her head tilted in consideration. 

Emma swallowed thickly and avoided meeting Regina’s gaze. “And I have all of you, I’m happy,” she amended weakly. 

Snow nodded and Henry spoke up to change the subject. Emma smiled at him and returned to her breakfast. 

After they’d finished Emma said her goodbyes and turned to leave for work but was stopped by Regina’s hand on her arm. “Henry and I thought you might like your dinner with just the three of us but I’ll understand if it’s too much in one day.”

Emma smiled at her consideration. She could always count on Regina to know her better than anyone else. She shook her head. “No, I’d like that.”

Regina gave her a soft smile. “See you at 8 then.”

* * *

“When was your favorite birthday?” asked Emma as she took a sip of her beer and looked up at the night sky. 

She and Regina were having drinks on the back porch while Henry had just gone to bed. 

Regina chuckled before answering. “When Henry was 8, he laid a breakfast tray with toast and orange juice. There was a card laid out that said ‘To the best mom ever’. He then asked if he could escort me to Granny’s for dinner and put on his best shirt and suit pants. When we arrived, he told anyone at the diner that he was taking his best girl out for her birthday.”

Emma smiled. “Do you miss it?”

Regina tilted her head. “Miss what?”

“Just you and him. Do you miss it?”

Regina thought for a moment then asked, “Do you?”

Emma shrugged. “Not anymore, it’s easier with you.”

Regina smiled. “There was a time when I did but I think now I can say it’s better this way.”

Emma nodded and returned her gaze to the sky. 

“I have another present for you if you’d like.”

Emma looked back and tilted her head. Regina waved her hand and an immaculately wrapped gift lay in her lap. Emma set her beer on the porch and opened it. The box was smaller than the one she’d received from Henry earlier that day. In it lay a bracelet with three charms on it; an apple, a quill and a star. 

“I know you don’t wear much jewelry but I thought you wouldn’t find a bracelet disagreeable.”

“God, Regina, it’s…” Emma opened and closed her mouth to come up with something but she found she couldn’t. 

Regina quirked an eyebrow. “It seems I’ve rendered you speechless, that’s quite a feat, even for me.” She winked as she pointed to the bracelet. “May I?”

Emma nodded. There was a sudden warmth when Regina clipped it on and she saw a flash of Henry in his bed and Regina sitting next to her. She knitted her eyebrows. 

“I enchanted it with a spell so you can always find us. I thought if you didn’t want to wear it all the time, at least it would be something useful for whatever our next magical crisis entails.”

Emma smiled. “And if I do want to wear it all the time? Are you really o.k. with me always knowing where you are?”

Regina rolled her eyes. “I have nothing to hide from you Emma. Besides it’s only flashes. I trust you wouldn’t misuse such a gift?”

Emma laughed. “Then you don’t know me at all.”

“On the contrary I know you well. It only works when you’re in danger or your motives are innocent in nature.” Regina pinned her with a look which only caused Emma to laugh more. 

When she calmed down, she picked her drink back up and leaned back in her chair. “I think my favorite birthday is this one. Thank you.” She patted Regina’s arm with her free hand. 

“You’re welcome.” 

When they got up to head inside a little while later, Emma stopped Regina with her hand. “I mean it you know, you and Henry are enough for me.”

Regina’s eyes were gentle and she smiled as she said, “Me too.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Emma’s cheek.


End file.
